Increased use of mass transportation in the early twentieth century
enabled men and women of different social classes to interact in ways
they had not before. Using a cultural studies approach that combines
historical research and literary analysis, author Alisa Freedman
investigates fictional, journalistic, and popular culture depictions of
how mass transportation changed prewar Tokyo's social fabric and
artistic movements, giving rise to gender roles that have come to
characterize modern Japan. Freedman persuasively argues that, through
descriptions of trains and buses, stations, transport workers, and
passengers, Japanese authors responded to contradictions in Tokyo's
urban modernity and exposed the effects of rapid change on the
individual. She shines a light on how prewar transport culture
anticipates what is fascinating and frustrating about Tokyo today,
providing insight into how people make themselves at home in the city.
An approachable and enjoyable book, Tokyo in Transit offers an
exciting ride through modern Japanese literature and culture, and
includes the first English translation of Kawabata Yasunari's The
Corpse Introducer, a 1929 crime novella that presents an important new
side of its Nobel Prizewinning author.